Gunner tells of air battles in Europe

May 6, 2011 11:00 PM

DEVIN WAGNER/The Jackson Sun / Houston Sipes was a top turret gunner on a B-24 Bo

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Houston Sipes wanted to be a pilot like his older brother Arnold during World War II. But the Army Air Corps had other plans.

"They didn't seem to trust my flying," Sipes said last month, bringing a laugh from family members in the room.

"People who weren't chosen as pilots were made gunners," he said.

So Sipes became a top-turret gunner in a B-24 Liberator, a heavy bomber that helped win the war.

Sipes' aircrew was credited with 50 missions, flying bombing raids over Germany, Austria and Italy. The crew actually flew 33 missions but received double credit on 17 raids due to the extreme level of danger.

"Houston hasn't wanted to fly since then," said Hope Sipes, his bride of 63 years. "He thought his luck might have run out."

It almost did on several occasions during the war.

On one mission, his B-24 was riddled by the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery. The plane lost all of its hydraulic power and still had a bomb lodged in the bay. Sipes climbed onto the bombing rack, managed to release the bomb and crawled back to the crew members.

Safety was far from certain. The captain told his crew to secure their parachutes and prepare to bail out. The men gathered around the open bomb bay doors but chose not to jump. They decided to see if the plane could make it back to friendly territory.

It did, but they knew the landing was going to be rough. Without hydraulics, the plane had no brakes. They were able to hand crank the landing gear into position, but stopping the plane was another matter.

That's when ingenuity took over. The crew members tied some of their parachutes to the side-mounted machine guns. When the plane touched the runway, the crew opened the parachutes and pitched them out the side windows.

The strategy worked, slowing the plane, but not before the B-24 rolled to the end of the runway and hit some of the planes on the ground. The airfield commander was upset, but the crew didn't care.

They were so happy to survive, they gathered beside their plane and had a picture taken. The parachutes can be seen behind the crew, still inflated and tied to the machine guns.

The B-24

As top turret gunner, Sipes was positioned above and behind the pilots. The shortest crewmen were usually assigned to the turret positions because of tight quarters. Sipes had to squeeze himself inside a ball of equipment, where he sat behind twin .50-caliber machine guns while looking through a bubble of laminated glass and plastic about 2 inches thick.

More than 18,000 Liberators were produced. That's more than any other American combat airplane in World War II. It had a higher top speed, greater range and more bomb capacity than the B-17 Flying Fortress. But many aircrews believed it wasn't as rugged as the B-17 and was more likely to catch fire due to the placement of its fuel tanks.

There were 11 machine guns spread among the top, belly, nose, tail and sides of the plane to defend it against enemy fighters. And Sipes saw more than his share of those fighters.

"It was pretty hard to have that much guts," he said, "because you were the very first one in that series of 10 men."

The Liberator carried a crew of eight to 10 men, and if enemy fighters attacked from above, the top turret gunner was often the first target.

One day as Sipes bent down to get something, the glass bubble on his turret exploded from enemy fire. He was not seriously injured, but the stress of battle and the unknown was almost overwhelming.

"It was about as rough as it can get, other than being in combat all the time," he said.

"The worst part," he told his grandson, Matt Sipes, "was not knowing if you're going to come back."

The first crash

Sipes came close to not making it past his first takeoff while still in the United States.

He was 17 when he left Jackson, joined the service and completed his gunner training in Georgia. The aircrew he trained with remained intact and was sent to New York to pick up its first B-24.

Fully loaded with fuel, the plane raced down the runway. As soon as it became airborne, it lost engine power.

The plane was not high enough for the crew to bail out; so the captain told his men to jump off the plane and run as soon as he was able to glide it to the ground. With so much fuel aboard, he feared an explosion.

Sipes followed orders and jumped as soon as possible. Recalling the incident, he told his younger brother, Gordon, "I fell down three or four times running faster than I could run."

The crew escaped injury, and there was no explosion. But the plane's damage required extensive repair.

His first mission in Europe was Oct. 7, 1944. He said the toughest bombing runs were against oil refineries in Germany because of the heavy anti-aircraft defenses.

After surviving his final mission on May 22, 1945, the celebrations began.

"It felt so good to still be around," Sipes said.

It felt even better when he got home to Jackson and enjoyed hugs from family, friends and, of course, Hope.

He arrived on a passenger train, and nearly everyone in town knew he was on it. They also knew of his 50 missions and wanted to give him a proper greeting.

"We only lived two or three blocks from the depot," said Gordon, his brother. "When the train stopped, the conductor wouldn't let anybody get off before Houston did. And when he stepped off that train, there was cheering and crying and everything. You've never seen a football game end like that. It was something else."

Houston married Hope on April 6, 1946. They had two sons and two daughters. Houston managed Wallick Music Co. for more than 45 years.

Today they live at Jackson Oaks Senior Living Community. Houston is 84, legally blind and uses a walker or wheelchair for mobility, Hope said.

His memory of the war years isn't what it used to be. But he proudly wears a B-24 Liberator cap on occasion and is thankful for a long life in his hometown, shared with family, friends and Hope.

Name: Houston Sipes

Age: 84

Residence: Jackson

Military service: Top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator, Army Air Corps, 98th bombing group, 345th bomber squadron, 1942-45.